Robert dismounted first, a hand on his sword as he waited for the others to follow. He motioned for Lanston to come closer. “Any idea what it is?”

“No.” Eyes wide with curiosity, the lanky young man would have walked right up to it if Robert didn’t grab the back of his shirt. “It resembles a slime but the coloring is wrong.”

“Slime?”

“A rare carnivorous magic plant with the water affinity. Quite similar to seaweed. It roves around as a ball of water, hiding in different water sources to ambush prey coming for a drink.”

“Dangerous?”

“Hardly. It can be dangerous underwater but on land, it’s practically useless.” Lanston frowned. “But this can’t be a slime. It’s the wrong environment. They are found in places with ample water. Not this.” He gestured at their surroundings. “And the color is wrong. So is the consistency. That doesn’t look like water.”

“Best guess?”

“I would say a mutation but…no. Likely something entirely different, something I’ve never seen.” He sounded excited.

Robert didn’t share his enthusiasm. Nothing posed more danger to a hunter than an unknown manabeast and the danger didn’t end with whether the creature could kill them.

“Why are we bothering with this?” Sebas grumbled. “Weren’t you bent on doing this qualifier? There is our objective. We kill the weird creature and get on with it.”

“For once, I agree with him,” Cecile said. “It’s a creature of water, right?” She held up a hand and fire danced over her fingertips as her eyes glowed. “Allow me.”

“No!” Lanston yelled.

“He’s right. Put the fire out, Cece.” Robert sighed. “This is the Beast Sanctuary. The monsters here are not just monsters, they are the property of the Hall. If this thing is a rare mutant, or worse, a newly evolved manabeast, none of us can bear the consequences of killing it. Simply move it aside.”

Sebas clicked his tongue. “Very well.” His eyes glowed as he built his spell and raised a hand. Several moments passed and nothing happened.

“Are you waiting for an audience to cheer you on?” Cecile said snidely.

“I already did something,” Sebas said. His voice lost its usual scorn. “I tried to displace it but it hasn’t moved a bit.”

“Seems the null affinity isn’t as powerful as you thought.”

“My affinity has nothing to do with it, dearest. It’s my coefficient. The more mass in the area the spell targets, the more mana it takes to move it. That thing is the size of a large dog and is supposedly a bubble of water. I’ve moved bigger things with a coefficient of ten. I threw thirty units behind that spell. Should have sent the thing flying over that hill. It hasn’t moved a meter.”

“Which means it’s a lot heavier than it looks,” Robert concluded.

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“Too heavy for me to move.”

“Slimes have been known to condense their water shells,” Lanston added.

“I don’t suppose we can ask it to move?” Cecile asked.

“Slimes aren’t known for their intelligence,” the young scholar answered. “But all creatures have an instinct for survival. Perhaps a larger predator will scare it off.”

“Mm. Thor.” The roc stepped forward, ducking its large head between his outstretched hand. Robert indulged his mount for a moment before pointing at the creature. “Roar.”

“Krahhh!”

Robert waited for the slime creature to flee from the fearsome shriek but the night-colored ooze didn’t move. It bobbed back and forth, almost as if it were dancing. The opposite picture of a creature in fear for its life.

“Thor. Toy.” In training, they used stuffed toys to teach the rocs how to hunt, how to corner prey without delivering a fatal blow. He hoped a few small swipes of the fearsome talons would be enough to send the creature on its way.

The roc dashed forward. It was more proficient as an aerial hunter but it could also fight well on land. It pounced, snapping its beak at the slime. When that failed to get a reaction, it threw out a talon.

That’s when things went horribly wrong.

Like a wave crashing against the shore, the slime expanded and rushed forward. Thorgood had one moment to let out a startled squawk before his head was swallowed. His wings flapped desperately as he tried to pull himself from the creature but the slime held tight, the ooze continuing to spread.

“Cece!” Robert shouted.

“I’ll hit Thor!”

“It won’t matter if he’s dead!” Robert didn’t wait. Heart pounding with panic, he quickly built a spell and unleashed a large fireball, aiming for the creature. Cecile was quick to follow. Neither of their spells hindered it, the ooze continuing to cover his mount.

“Damn it!” Robert pulled his sword, ignoring his team’s shouts of caution as he dashed forward. He raised his sword high, ready to cut the thing away, but before he could get in range, a thick rope of ooze broke from the main body and hit him across the chest.

Robert felt as if a carriage had bowled him over. The sword fell from his numb fingers as he was thrown backward, tumbling over the ground repeatedly. His blurry vision struggled to make out details but he could hear his teammates fighting.

He let out a cry of pain as hands grabbed him under the shoulders and dragged him off.

“Shut up!” Sebas hissed. “You don’t want to catch that thing’s attention. Fuck! Why are we saddled with that useless bitch when we needed a healer?”

“Help me up.” He cried out as Sebas dragged him to his feet, his ribs screaming in complaint. He forced the pain to the back of his mind, focusing on the situation. Cecile was still throwing fire and there was a hole in the ground where Lanston had presumably attempted to drop the creature. Their efforts were ineffective. The only visible part of his mount was his rump, his hind legs moving wildly as Thorgood fought to escape.

Robert used the pain to focus. He built a simple flame arrow but added a temperature variable, an intensity variable, and added a coefficient of two hundred, nearly his whole mana pool. He screamed as the spell emerged from his hand, the intense flames burning his palm without him taking any precautions and from the whiplash of intense mana drain.

His spell hissed like a striking snake as it flew. Hot air exploded outward as the spell struck, knocking them off their feet.

Robert struggled to raise his head. He hoped he would see the creature writhing in pain and his mount, his friend, finishing it off.

Instead, he saw the last of the roc swallowed by the ooze. There was a strange quiet where all was still. No one even dared to scream. Not out of fear, not out of grief. Robert gaped in mute horror as the slime shrunk, compressing to its original size. Then it bobbed back and forth. Happily?

Was the damn thing…laughing at them?

Orphelia was the first to move. She grabbed Cecile and Lanston, dragging them away while frequently throwing looks over her shoulder to make sure the creature wasn’t following them.

“Sebas, get him up, now. We have to move.”

“Don’t give me orders.”

Despite his harsh tone, Sebas grabbed him and pulled him away, following after Orphelia. The whole time, Robert was forced to look at the bobbing ooze, the fearful screeching of his mount ringing in his ears.